There have been proposed various light emitting devices in which a semiconductor light emitting element and a luminescent composite are combined. In such light emitting devices, the luminescent composite absorbs excitation light from the semiconductor light emitting element and emits light whose wavelength is different from that of the excitation light.
For example, an LED light bulb in which plural semiconductor diodes (LEDs) are surface-mounted is proposed as the light emitting device.
However, in the LED light bulb, the semiconductor light emitting diodes and a luminescent component are disposed on an opaque substrate that also acts as, a heat sink. Therefore, the rear of the LED light bulb is not illuminated with visible light emitted from the luminescent component because the visible light is obstructed by the light source or a substrate while the front of the LED light bulb is illuminated with the visible light, which causes a problem in that wide-range illumination cannot be realized.